24:12 It has tried my patience; 1
yet its thick rot is not removed 2 from it.
Subject its rot to the fire! 3
24:13 You mix uncleanness with obscene conduct. 4
I tried to cleanse you, 5 but you are not clean.
You will not be cleansed from your uncleanness 6
until I have exhausted my anger on you.
1 tn Heb “(with) toil she has wearied.” The meaning of the statement is unclear in the Hebrew text; some follow the LXX and delete it. The first word in the statement (rendered “toil” in the literal translation above) occurs only here in the OT, and the verb “she has wearied” lacks a stated object. Elsewhere the Hiphil of the verb refers to wearying someone or trying someone’s patience. The feminine subject is apparently the symbolic pot.
2 tn Heb “does not go out.”
3 tn Heb “in fire its rust.” The meaning of the expression is unclear. The translation understands the statement as a command to burn the rust away. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:768.
4 tn Heb “in your uncleanness (is) obscene conduct.”
5 tn Heb “because I cleansed you.” In this context (see especially the very next statement), the statement must refer to divine intention and purpose. Despite God’s efforts to cleanse his people, they resisted him and remained morally impure.
6 tn The Hebrew text adds the word “again.”